Thesaurus

What is the feature about?

You can find the feature Thesaurus in the Control Desk under Services > Search > Features. There you can semantically optimize any search terms and thus change the result set. In this way, you ensure that shop visitors are more likely to receive the desired results.

 

How can I optimize keywords semantically?

Extending or restricting a keyword means to define the meaning due to an individual definition. In more specific terms, this means to extend the result output of a certain keyword with the output of another one by following specified rules. Therefore the Thesaurus offers different rule types:

  • Exclude: The Exclude rule cleans up inappropriate search results that may appear in the search results due to their similarity, e.g. pool - polo.
  • Replace: The Replace rule allows replacing search terms with alternative search terms, e.g. hotpants, shorts.
  • Extend: With the Extend rule you can extend your search term with alternative search terms, e.g. jacket + coat. The result set of 'jacket' is thus extended by the result set of 'coat'. Conversely, the alternative search term keeps its previous search result.
  • Equate: With the Equate rule you assign equivalent terms to a search term, e.g. mug + cup. This way, the same search results appear for each search term.

 

Rule Exclude

The 'Exclude' rule excludes terms from the search result that are similar to the original keyword. Thus unintended results can be reduced.

Example: The keyword is 'pool' and the original result set consists of 'pool + polo'. Now 'polo' is excluded, this reduces the result set to 'pool' for the keyword 'pool'.

 

thesaurus-exclude.png

 

 

Rule Replace

The 'Replace' rule replaces the original keyword with another term. As a result, only one search query is triggered for the entered keyword.

Example: The keyword is 'hotpants' and will be replaced by 'shorts'. The result output consists exclusively of 'shorts' for the keyword 'hotpants'.

 

thesaurus-replace.png

 

Rule Extend

The 'Extend' rule can be used to extend the search result of a specific keyword by the content of alternative terms (rule terms). Conversely, the alternative keywords retain their previous search result.

Example: The keyword is 'jacket' and the alternative term is 'coat'. Thus the result output for 'jacket' consists of 'jacket + coat', but the output for 'coat' still consists of 'coat'.

 

thesaurus-alternative.png

 

Rule Equate

Using the 'Equate' rule, keywords can be linked and equated (synonyms), i.e. the search result is the same for each keyword, no matter which one is searched. 

Example 1: The keyword is 'mug' and a possible synonym is 'cup'. This results in a result set consisting of 'mug + cup' for each of the keywords.

Example 2: For the keyword 'shot glass' the synonym is the no result bavarian term 'Stamperl'. Since this has no matches, the fault-tolerant search adds possible further results, i.e., Stampfer, which means masher. The search result for 'shot glasses' is thus incorrectly supplemented.

 

thesaurus-synonyms.png

 

How do I optimize search queries with no result?

It may happen that a search query does not return any results, even though the product you are looking for exists in the shop. In this case, the products are not found under the entered search term. To cover such cases, there is the feature Thesaurus. This way you can easily integrate the language usage of the shop visitors into your search.

If a term has no search result, then use the rule Extend or Replace.

Example: Some of your shop visitors are looking for notebooks instead of laptops or even satchels instead of school bags. With the Thesaurus feature you can extend or replace notebooks with laptops and satchels with school bags. 

 

How do I manage the feature in the Control Desk? 

You can find the feature Thesaurus in the Control Desk under Services > Search > Features.

After you have created an entry, it will appear in the overview table. 

Thesaurus_OverviewTable.PNG

 

There you can activate/deactivate, configure or delete an entry. 

The symbols used in the Control Desk are explained here.

 

Examples of Use

You can find some general Use Cases here.

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